(Disclaimer: Links to online sources included on this webpage are placed here for exemplary purposes only and do not reflect the endorsements of Dr. Geoffrey Grimes, instructor; Mountain View College; or the Dallas County Community College District.)

Assessing Internet Resources
By the end of 1997 there were some 4 million documents estimated on the World Wide Web, not to mention the other resources--Telnet, Gopher and FTP sites. The organic Internet, sprouting hundreds of new sites by the hour, is the best example of the principle of free speech in action. It is a truly global arena through which people around the world have instant access to one another, who, with only a double click, splinter the barriers of politics, religion, economics, philosophy, and geography. Literally anyone with access to a browser can surf a virtual universe of information, and anyone with a service provider can design and upload a personal website.

Needless-to-say, on the Internet you will find information on every conceivable topic. The problem is not so much how to get to the information, however, but rather, how to evaluate it. While most worthy information is likely to be found online for just about every subject, there is also a plethora of most unworthy information as well.

Selecting Online Sources
How does a student with only limited time and resources learn quickly to tell the difference? Here are some tips:

Academic Sites (www. . . .edu)
Look for sites which contain the closing extension ".edu" at the end of the URL (online address). While many colleges and universities also post FTP sites (which lack the distinguishing extension ".edu"), almost all have educational addresses as well. Because the college and university sites tend to post academic information developed by both experienced teaching professors as well as researchers on their staff, educational sites generally post very reliable and valuable information. You might want to visit The World Lecture Hall for links to online course information around the world.

Organizational Sites (www. . . .org)
Many professional, non-profit, and have websites on which they post the latest informatoin relative to their interests and expertise. They will often link to other sites which contain information which they support or acknowledge as significant.  Look for the extension of ".org" in their addresses.

Government Sites (www. . . .gov)
Many local, state, and national government agencies also maintain websites. You can find timely, valuable statistical and other information on these sites about thousands of topics. Type in the name of the city, county, state, or country in the search engine of your browser. You'll be greeted with a menu of categories of information to choose from. Government online addresses will contain a ".gov" extension.

Online Scholarly Publications
Many professional and research associations maintain websites which also include links to their journals published online. Often, the online journals contain the same articles as their hardcopy publications which you can find in the stacks of your college or university library. If you don't know the names of some of the professional associations, ask your librarian for assistance. Libraries have lists of journals to which they subscribe which you can browse for possible titles.

Type in the name of a journal (like the Harvard Educational Review)or the field or discipline (like "health" or "physics") in the online search engine. Often, the title of the online publication will be posted very close to the top of the listings. If you have entered a key word instead of a specific title, the first few options which your browser reveals will give you clearer ideas about how to refine your search. One valuable clue to the value of the source is the online description accompanying the title of the website. The descriptions will often identify the origin and purpose of the site.

When you find a worthy source (from the accompanying description or address extention), you often will be given a hypertext (active link) option to search for "more topics like this one," or something to that effect. By clicking on this link, you will be able to narrow your search.

Juried Sources
Occasionally, you will find sites which identify editorial or advisory boards. This means that information contained has usually been reviewed by a team of people or outside judges, often by those same people whose names appear as board members, advisors, or jurists (editors). Their task has been to review and evaluate all submissions from individual scholars. They have selected only the better submissions for posting on the website. These sources provide very valuable information.

Publishers' Sites
Most publishers of academic textbooks have developed websites to promote both their books and accompanying online websites supporting one or even a set of texts. While some sites provide only "teasers" (tantalizing bits and pieces) as introductions to spark the interest of a surfing professor reviewing texts, other publishers' sites offer open links to many help web documents like style pages, grammar checks, as well as content pages of selected topics. Some even provide links to complete texts.

"Bookmarking" Your Better Sites
Be sure to save your links to important sites you discover by "book-marking" them. (Some web service providers use different terminology. America Online, for example, gives you the option of adding to your "favorite sites.") If you have doubts about how to do that, consult the online "Help" menu for your browser or homepage for your service provider.

About Search Engines
"Search engines" are web programs that search the World Wide Web for web pages and websites. While you are probably familiar with two or three of the more popular search engines, it would be a good investment of an hour or more to explore others. In fact, it might be surprising to you to know that there are several hundred available to you. Here are links to some of the more popular ones: Altavista, Lycos, Hotbot, Yahoo!, Webcrawler, Excite, Netscape, Infoseek, Looksmart. But here's a link to Beaucoup! a list service to more than 800 search engines arranged in various categories!

Some Warnings
The types of websites described above are usually reliable sources of information. Even reviewing these, however, you should always remain cautious. For those sites not identified above, generally be wary of web documents that

• make claims without documenting corroborating information and recognized authorities;
• reflect lack of proofreading and editing;
• offer unsolicited advice;
• contain incoherent descriptions with their browser listings;
• accompany solicitations of products and services;
• charge fees for entry into the website;
• are not current;
• contain unmaintained documents or information; or
• solicit credit card or other personal information.

It is next to impossible to evaluate the credibility of every site you download, but the guidelines contained here should help you in your initial review of online resources.

Go to Exercise 15

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